Apples and Oranges
by Holla Jolla
Summary: After an accident occurs and Fluttershy is hurt, a relative of hers arrives in Ponyville to take care of her shelter. As Applejack and this new pony hit it off, could it become more of a problem than a blessing? OCxAJ Rated M for maybe later chapters.
1. Recollection

**Dedicated to everybody at /co/ who got me into this and motivated me to write it.**

**I don't own MLP.  
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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Recollection<strong>

The sun crept through the cracks between the boards on window in the old loft, stretching it's long fingers over a single mattress lying on the floor. Normally at this time, a _certain _fiery pony would shield her eyes, throw off the sheets, and stomp down the stairs of the loft, ready for another day of work. However, today was different. She let the sun sting her eyes. She let the rays that normally would have ignited the fire in her heart for another day, douse them instead. Shifting around her sheets to find a cold spot, the distressed mare was flooded by memories of the last night. She had never felt so hopeless, so...out of control.

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><p>"<em>It's awfully quiet out..." Applejack said to nopony in particular. It was true. The only sound that cut through the winter night's silence was the rhythmic thwacks of ax against wood. She was supervising the farmhands that were clearing the some of the dead trees out of the orchard. "This winter frost is really gettin' the better of us." she thought, clutching her jacket closer to herself. They hadn't gotten nearly enough work done to prepare for Winter Wrap-Up. The trees had been ta king up space as a decoration to the entrance into Ponyville, but had only proven to be an eyesore after dying. They had been meaning to cut them down earlier, but they never actually found a time to set aside for it. Suddenly, a loud "Timber!" shook her from her thoughts. Soon, the tell-tale sound of buckling bark and wood splitting followed. She watched the tree fall safely into a clearing, but couldn't help as to worry that what they were doing wasn't safe. As she looked back towards the stump, she saw Corks had been the cutter. Grinning like usual, he approached her. She knew what was coming next. <em>

"_Love that sound!" he said, followed by his usual booming laugh._

God, she loved that laugh. A single tear rolled down her cheek.

"_Always have, haven't ya?" Applejack replied casually. Her and Corks had been almost inseparable since he showed up. After being fired from his job in Hoofington, He had been living off the land. Looking for work, he arrived at the front gates some time last year. Being the only lumberjack ever to come to Ponyville, He had plenty of work to go around and no reason to leave."So,where we headed to next?" she asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice._

_He picked up on it almost immediately. Giving her a concerned look, he didn't let the small tone go unnoticed. "Fluttershy's Cottage," he said "but are you alright? You seem a little on edge."_

_Applejack sighed. Corks never did let anything past him, being so protective of her all the time. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a little nervous that's all. All these trees fallin' just doesn't seem safe." _

_He just laughed. "We're out here alone with what? Two or three other people? We'll be fine. You worry too much."_

_If only that had been true._

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><p><em>She had been at the base of the hill with Corks when it happened. The first thing she heard was the screams. Oh Celestia, the screams. She had turned around and immediately started sprinting up the hill, towards the sound. Corks,now on full alert, grabbed his ax off the ground and stayed close behind her. She knew this would happen, she just knew something would go wrong. She had been in difficult situations like this, but had never ran so fast. As she just began to scale the slope, she heard the trademark loud splintering of wood. A few aching seconds passed, then it hit. The noise was thunderous, almost like an explosion. She had never heard anything like it. It was almost like a mix of thunder and an earthquake. It was terrible and earsplitting, but even this did not scare her. What scared her was it came from the cottage.<em>

_As she came to the top of the hill, she saw the . The damage was unbelievable. A large oak tree apparently had fallen onto the small entire place looked like it had imploded from the impact. A number of farmhands were crowded around the wreck, digging through debris for animals and yelling to one another for help. "What in the hay is goin' on here?" she asked one of them. _

"_Well, Clover messed up and cut the fall restraint on his back-swing. The tree fell the wrong the wrong way, and..." He trailed off, looking toward the wreckage, then the ground. "Clover is fine, but Fluttershy..." He sighed and looked up._

"_She's not okay."_

_Applejack's face went stark white. Oh Celestia, this was her fault. This was all her fault. If she hadn't been messing around with Corks, she could have done something. Now because of her, she's..._

"_Wait just a second! What the hell do you mean she's 'not okay'? What happened to her?" Corks had been back helping getting the wreckage cleaned up, but when he over heard the young farmhand say something about Fluttershy, he lit up like a firecracker. He looked ready to explode._

"_Well, when the tree came down, it collapsed the room she was in..." seeing the face Corks was making, the farmhand quickly told him the rest of the details. "I m-mean she's alive and all, but she's hurt pretty badly. Dr. Whooves said at least 2 broken bones."_

_A mix of emotions seemed to flash across Corks's face. Applejack couldn't really tell, but he looked almost...confused. After a couple seconds or so, he regained his composure and turned to face the farmhand again. "Alright, well...where is she? Is she gonna be alright?"_

"_She's at the hospital with Dr. Whooves right now. He says that she will be fine, but will be in no condition to work for at least a month."_

_Corks suddenly perked up at this. "Well, why don't we just head over there now and check up on her?" He seemed intent on insuring the quiet filly's safety._

"_Sorry, but for right now, ya can't see her. Whooves says she needs her rest and can't be bothered right now, but y'all should be able to see her around noon tomorrow." The farm hand smiled. Almost every one knew that Corks felt something special for the filly. Except, of course, the mare herself. The naive girl wouldn't know even if came up and smacked her on the nose._

_Corks visibly slouched at hearing this. "...Oh." He glanced at the ground for a second, defeated. However, nothing could keep the colt down for long. "Well then, I guess we'll just have to go tommorow!" _

_Applejack, however, was not in such high spirits. She felt awful. Her friend, because of her mistakes, was now in the hospital and couldn't even support he life's business! She hadn't meant for this. She...she never asked for this. _


	2. Introductions

**I'm very sorry to the people who subscribed to this story that it took me so long. To tell the truth, I was being lazy and putting this story off. I hope you enjoy this chapter.  
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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Introductions<strong>

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Applejack decided she need to toughen up. She would not let this one issue beat her. She was never one to boast much, but she had been through worse things than just a friend getting hurt. Hell, she had probably been hurt more than all them combined! She ran an Apple Farm, for Celestia's sake!

Applejack threw off the covers, filled with a new, firm motive. She was going to go up to that hospital, and she was going to make it up to Fluttershy. She would tell her that this was her fault, that she would take care of all the damages and animals. It wouldn't fix the little filly completely, but at least it would take a burden off her shoulders.

She sat up right on her mattress. Rubbing her eyes and yawning, she took in her surroundings as if she had never really seen them like this before. Observing it all like this, she noticed how much her room really reflected her own personality. It was like her own little home to herself. Even her mattress, with no prim or proper with it, carried a place in her heart. Wearing it's modest white sheets and apple red quilt, it was one of the happiest places Applejack was at the end of a long day. It was far from royalty but in Applejack's mind , it was absolute perfection.

Leaving her thoughts for the moment, Applejack decided that she had better start preparing for the upcoming day. She began down the stairs, heading towards the bathroom for a nice, long shower. Turning the knob all the way up on hot, she stepped inside. At the time, with the warm water running against her body and the steam calming her, she was in absolute bliss.

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><p>Eventually knowing that it would have to end, she turned off the shower. After grabbing a towel (Which, mind you, is very difficult with hoofs.), she took a step out of the shower. The sudden blast of cold air made a shiver run up her spine. She made her way up to the mirror, clutching the towel to herself to protect against the uncomfortable draft. After drying herself and her mane off, she took a good long look at the pony in the mirror.<p>

She wasn't a very bad looking pony. Not at all. _In fact_, she thought to herself, _I look darn right beautiful! _Her fair mane, that was usually tied up, fell down to her shoulders with a gentle curl at the end, outlining her face. She had large eyes, as green as the orchard she worked in, that were accented by her equally large eye lashes. Her smile always had dimples in the corners, ever since she was a filly. Those were accompanied by the scattered dots of freckles around her nose and eyes.

Gazing further back, she took in some of the more..._robust_ features of her body. Her entire body was lean with muscle. She wasn't _ripped, _per say, but she had a nice, athletic looking body. Smooth and sleek, that was how she liked it. Her rump had also benefited from all her hard work on the farm. It in itself had earned her a few good slaps on some of the more arrogant stallions.

As she gave herself a nice look over, she suddenly thought of something she never thought she would: When did she want to settle down? Did she even want to find someone? Always before in her life, she never even touched upon dating. She was always either hanging out with her friends or working hard on the farm. She had always just been that independent. Of course, she had been egged on by her friends to find a mate and even been came onto, but she never really put any effort into finding someone. It was always just an issue that was shrugged off with her. However, when she was looking at herself like this, she couldn't help but to think: _When_? Even more importantly, _Who_?

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><p>When Applejack was done tying her hair up and going through a philosophic battle in her head, she headed down stairs to eat some breakfast. To her surprise, however, a certain stallion was lounging on the couch."What in the hay are you doin' here, Cork?" she asked him.<p>

The colt jumped from the sudden noise and fell off the couch. Laughing and looking up at her, he smiled. "Well, uh, I was already dressed and ready to go," he said, waving his hoof in the air for effect, "But since you decided to take your sweet time getting all fancied up, I thought I would just make myself a bit more comfy." He put his hoofs behind his head, ready for the imminent chewing out.

"Fancied up? Ah only took a shower and tied up my mane!" she said with a slight drawl on the 'I'. She hated that. Whenever she would get frustrated or nervous, her accent would tend to come out more. She had always seen it as an imperfection, but Corks had told her it was cute every time she did it.

"Does it that always take you an hour?" he replied with a cautious smirk. Corks knew he was pushing the limit. He loved to antagonize the stubborn mare, but, were he any other pony, his ass would be out of there in seconds. Sure, since he was one of her best friends, he could annoy her without trouble, but she did have her boundaries.

"Ya better watch yerself or I will whoop yer butt inta' next week." she said with her worsening drawl again. Corks was starting to annoy her a bit.

He raised his hooves in defense. "Haha, alright, I'll stop." He got up off the floor and stretched his legs. "Hey, you want some breakfast? I made some pancakes and still got some left if you want em."

She gave him a look of bewilderment. "How...how long have you exactly been here?"

He shrugged. "About an hour, give or take. Now," he said grinning, "How about those pancakes?"

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><p>"DONE!" Corks yelled, slamming down his silverware on the table. He enthusiastically burped and looked towards Applejack. "You see that? Swear, I could set a new record for eating pancakes one day!" He said, beaming with pride.<p>

She just stared at him for a moment. "You know, you really are a child sometimes right?" she said, lightly chuckling. She stared back down at her own plate. While Corks had eagerly wolfed down 3 servings of them, Applejack had barely finished a single pancake. _I guess I really aren't over it yet, _she thought to herself.

"Hey. Hey, girl?" Corks snapped her out of her thoughts. He grinned. "You 'aight?"

"Yeah, I...I'm just worried about her, ya know?" She looked up towards him. Quite frankly, she was pretty surprised with how well he was dealing with this, considering it was Fluttershy.

Corks leaned back and let out a long whistle. "Yeah, me too, me too..." he said, trailing off a bit in his thoughts himself. She guessed he wasn't as okay as his veil seemed.

"Have you heard anything from the doctor or nurses?" She wanted something, anything, to reassure her about Fluttershy's health.

"Well, I did pass through there this morning before I came to your house. I asked around a tiny bit with the staff. They said that she's fully awake now, but she still won't be able to work for a couple of weeks." He said, not raising his gaze from the tile flooring. Yeah, he definitely wasn't okay.

"Cork."

He didn't look up.

"_Cork_**.**" Her voice lowered an octave as she walked towards him

The floor was more interesting to him.

"Corks!" Applejack put her hoof on his shoulder. Apparently, this woke him up as he recoiled sharply from the contact, snapping back to reality. He looked towards her, then at her hoof, and finally relaxed.

"Sorry," Corks mumbled, rubbing the back of his auburn mane with his hoof. "I just...space out sometimes, ya know?" His face still managed to hold a faint smile, as it always seemed to.

"Really now? I didn't notice." Applejack commented with playful sarcasm. She smiled back at him, happy that she, at the very least, could get a bit of that normal happiness back out of him.

"Yeah, not really something I do that often." he replied, his voice drenched with equal satire. It wasn't uncommon that he'd jump from one mood to the next. Going from feeling one way to another within a couple of seconds was just normal for him. Applejack couldn't really remember a time though when he hadn't been in some way happy.

"Alright then mopey, guess I'll just have to head out to the hospital by myself." Letting out an overly heavy exhale, she got up and headed towards the door.

"Is it time already?" Corks instantly perked up.

Applejack just took her Stetson off the rack and chuckled. Not only was the young colt inattentive, but at just the sheer mention of Fluttershy, his heart seemed to soar. It really was a sight to behold.

"Yes, we can go see her now." The look in his eyes then made Applejack happy she wasn't in a race, because if she was, Corks would have already had her beat.

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><p>By the time she and Corks had arrived at the hospital, Applejack could tell that Corks's mood had done a complete 180. She was happy to be able to see that nice swing in his step again, and the twinkle in his eyes.<p>

While Corks went ahead to the receptionist to schedule, (which, like always, he ended up having to start an entire conversation with her.) Applejack sat down it one of the not-so-comfortable waiting seats. As she took a look around at some of the people around her, she noticed somepony in particular. Now, after years of working there and selling her goods, Applejack had gradually began to know every pony in Ponyville. However, this was a new face. She had never seen a pony like this before in town.

The dark yellow stallion was tall, not as tall as Big Mac, but still at least half a head taller than Applejack. His unkempt mane waved down to his chin, where it gently curled upwards. He was a hard-labor pony, Applejack noted, seeing as he was built like many of the farm hands, with lean muscle and calloused hoofs.

Staring at the colt at the other end of the room, Applejack couldn't help but to have this mornings thoughts of partnership flood back to her. She didn't want to admit it, but she did find him rather..._cute. _It wasn't an unwelcome feeling exactly, but it made her feel...weak in some way.

Seeing as she was entirely new to this type of thing, Applejack guessed this was as good an opportunity as any other_. _After all, they already had something in common. Why the hell not? A little flirting never hurt anypony. She got up and walked towards him.

"Hey, don't think I've ever seen you before. Ya new here?" Applejack sat down in the chair next to him.

He was a little bit stunned at first from the sudden conversation stater. "Uh...yeah. Came here from Hoofington. I had to come take care of my sister's place for a while. The name's Bristle. My friends call me Bris, though." He held out his hoof and grinned.

Applejack took it in her's and shook it. "Welcome to Ponyville then, Bris! Ah'm Applejack. I run the apple farm right outside town." _And there goes the lisp. Damn._

"Applejack? Yeah, my sister talks about you all the time! You know Fluttershy, right?"

Her heart sank. Well, there goes that opportunity. She sighed under her breath.

"Yeah, her and I are neighbors. I'm actually here right now to see her. I'm guessin' you are, too?" Applejack really couldn't help but feel disappointed that he was related to her friend.

"Yeah! I just need to find out where I need to go to take the animals and all that. Knowing her though, she probably won't know either. So, I guess I'm kinda just in between a rock and a hard place." Bristle sighed and put his back hoofs on a chair adjacent to him.

She couldn't help but feel bad for the guy. He had been thrust into this whole new situation and town, and he doesn't even have a place to go. It felt like she needed to help him. "Well, seeing as your in a bit of a pickle here, I don't see why ya couldn't use our barn as a place."

The look on his face was filled with new hope. "Really? I mean, I don't wanna be a burden or something." He looked to her, asking for confirmation.

"Nah it's fine. Heck, we don't even use half the darn thing! You'll honestly be doin' us a favor." It was just in her nature to be helpful.

He flashed her a million dollar smile that, Applejack swore, could have made every mare's heart in ten miles melt. "That's mighty kind of you, Applejack! Thank-"

"Yo, AJ! We can go in now!" Corks came up behind them and flipped himself into a seat. He looked toward the unfamiliar colt. "Hey, what's up, Bro!" he greeted him as if they were old friends.

"Mornin'!" Bristle replied, despite the rude interruption. He turned to Applejack with a questioning look. "So this is your, uh, boyfriend, I take it?"

It was quiet for a moment. Time and Space stood still. Then, Corks had burst out into fits and bouts of suffocating laughter. "Oh Celestia, Oh my goodness...Me, ha, with, with...HER?" he still managed to spit out in between his giggles.

Applejack wasn't as amused. She reached out and hit Corks square in the chest, causing him to fall back in his chair. Even after the hard landing, he writhed on the floor, still busting with laughs. His best friend just rolled her eyes. She looked towards Bristle, who seemed somewhere between shocked and terrified with this display. "Nah, he's just my _dumb_ friend, Corks." On dumb, Applejack kicked Corks lightly on the floor. Just to make sure he was still alive.

"Oh, so you're not dating?" Bristle had a tinge of...hopefulness in his voice? Applejack coulde't really tell since after he said that, Corks let out a huge snort and said "HELL to the NO!"

After letting out yet another playful hit on Corks, Applejack reassured Bristle. "Nope. I don't even know why I hang out with him." She looked at Corks and made a ridiculous scowl. He scowled back.

"You know you love me."

"Excuse me, but you all can go in now and see her" The receptionist eyeballed them from the desk in the middle of the room. "Just don't be too..._rambunctious." _she said, as if they were going to burn the hospital down if she didn't warn them.

"Thank you, M'am! Come on..." Applejack lifted Corks off the floor, whom really didn't have any breath left to object. She looked towards Bristle. "Well, ya comin'?"

He looked at her dumbly for a moment. Then he just shook his head and said "Anytime."

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><p><strong>Alright, so they way I like to do my stories is<strong>:

**Chap 1: ~1000 words**

**Chap 2: ~2000 words**

**Chap 3: ~3000 words**

**So on, so forth, until ~5000 words, which every chapter after that will be ~5000 words**.


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